Pulling Power?

‘IF some bloke sidles up to you in a bar and whispers suggestively in your ear, ”This time next year, let’s be laughing together”, your natural reaction would be to bop them on the nose.

Tommy’s new chat-up technique was working a treat

Not in Japan. The Times says a ten-strong panel there has concluded that these eight simple words constitute the perfect chat-up line.

And they are hopeful that it will usher in a new era in a country where the birthrate has fallen to dangerously low levels.

Apparently, the line contains three powerful ”word triggers” – ”this time next year” implies that the chatter-upper is interested in more than a quick fling; ”together” suggests that even after a year the joy of dating is as strong as ever; and ”laughing” softens the whole phrase and conveys a kind of levity.

The Times, however, has tested it out on five British women – and received a predictable thumbs-down.

Laura Gibson, a PR executive from Bristol, said the Japanese population would soon die out if all men resorted to this line.

”It sounds like a line designed by men who have no sense of humour,” she says, ”and who think that all women are stupid and desperate.”

As opposed to the six-word British equivalent, ”Get your coat, love – you’ve pulled”, which still works as well today as it ever did.’